Netflix: From Doghouse to Darling

Sometimes, the famously fickle PR gods send you a gift, and if you’re lucky, smart, or both, you’ll get a chance to use it. This week’s beneficiary: Netflix. Two years ago, the video streaming and DVD rental company was a case study – literally – on how to fail a thriving enterprise, with questionable pricing and business decisions that sent subscribers stampeding for the exits. Netflix became the poster child for PR ignorance and customer neglect, losing nearly one million subscribers over a matter of months.

Then, a chastened Netflix started to turn it around. It reversed unpopular business decisions and issued a sincere (and persistent) mea culpa. It aligned its communications strategy with its business plan, breaking new ground for a streaming service by providing original content. Today, its subscriber base surpasses HBO’s and its stock price is six times what it was only a year ago. Quarterly earnings are next week.

And the gift? Just a humorous online chat between a funny, friendly, and helpful Netflix customer service representative and a user with a video playback problem. A screenshot of the Star Trek-themed dialogue was posted online on Imgur and Reddit and is getting wider attention. Netflix is getting free publicity from it – earned the hard way, and through hard work.

THE PR VERDICT: “A” (PR Perfect) for Netflix, for a turnaround in tone, culture, and attitude that turned around its business.

THE PR TAKEAWAY: Good communication is contagious. Netflix’s earnest soul-searching two years ago, translated into words and actions, now appears to touch even the most routine business activities. Granted, maybe not all of Netflix’s help calls end as happily – customer service is a weak spot for many firms. But this exchange garnered publicity precisely because it speaks to a prevailing positive mindset that has formed about the company, one that seems to attract great employees as well as loyal, happy customers. Netflix provides an object lesson in how good conmunications helps throughout an organization. Its little PR gift also confirms that luck doesn’t just happen; you make your own.

William Dentzer, a San Francisco-based writer and communications/media consultant, has managed corporate communications and media relations at global firms such as UBS, Bain & Company, The Associated Press, and British consultancy Arup. He previously served as a mayoral press secretary and was a longtime political reporter and columnist with the Gannett newspaper chain in New York.